Using a guitar that isn't anything like a Gypsy Jazz guitar

dennis

Yes that tremblay busato is a beast of a guitar. That one and the one he made for me are some of his best works. Unfortunately i was only able to try it for 30mn before he had to ship it to caravan guitars.

Martin has really improved in the past few years from restoring a whole bunch of vintage guitars thanks to collectors from around the world.

Bireli is trying to get one himself

Jeff Moore

Listening to the sound of Django in most of his recordings of the 30's and 40's, I can't tell if the recording is primitive or the guitar he's playing is a poor one. Either way his playing elevates the sound of the guitar which doesn't sound very good otherwise. The sound of recorded his guitar is not what I hear on my nice GJ guitar. Never the less, the recording sounds really "good" because his ideas really work. It sounds so good that I didn't notice the actual sound itself for years.

Jeff Moore

A picture perfect transition to Selmac guitar would be to do all the hard work on whatever you have and then buy at the high end. You don't really need the "Dupont" to learn. If money isn't a problem, call Michael and tell him you want the best guitar he's got. If not, keep practicing. Cleverness in the fingers trumps the tool your using. Any chisel can make world class sculpture.
Or for the price of a cheap set of tires you can experience a reasonable facsimile of a "real" Selmac in a Cigano short scale.

Jeff Moore

Dennis, I happened on your website. "In fact, not just music, but the arts in general are what defines us as human beings and create culture".
Bingo.

Jazzaferri

Depending on the size of ones fingers ( length and diameter) and hand, neck shape and size are very important factors in choosing a guitar.

Responsiveness, balance and tone are my next factors in descending order. All have to be good for me to keep one.

Jojo

That's the difficult thing, Jazzaferri, as the necks seem like SOMETHING ELSE! I'm used to electric guitarish necks and the width of the GJ guitars is frightening. I have tried the Jan Akkerman model which was frankly just bizarre next to a DG500 (I think...it was a while ago). I mean, its difficult within a half an hour to know which GJ guitar would be good to buy as it would take days to get used to the transition from ordinary acoustic/electric to GJ guitar. Its quite a stumbling block,